Furnace-cleaning door.



C. E. ROBINSON.

FURNACE CLEANING DOOR. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 28. 191B.

Patented Dec. 31, 1918.

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4 TTOR/VEYS CHARLES ELDON ROBINSON, OF WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA,ASSIGNOR TO E. KEELER COMPANY, OF WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA, ACORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

FURNACE-CLEANING DOOR.

Patented Dec. 31, 1918.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES ELDoN Roe- INsoN, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of l/Villiamsport, county of Lycoming, and Stateof Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inFurnace-Cleaning Doors, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a gravity actuated door closure of generalapplication and specifica'lly relates to such a type of doorconstruction designed for sealing the clean out openings in water tubeboilers.

In boiler practice it is desirable that a blow pipe or other cleaningapparatus be inserted from time to time into the boiler setting throughthe several clean out openings to blow ofl the soot and dust whichaccumulates about the water tubes. The boiler is usually hot, for thecleaning should take place daily and as cheap labor is employed for thispurpose it is desirable to provide such a construction that the numerousdoors can be pushed or quickly jerked into open position and restoredinto an air tight closed position without the necessity of the operatorexercising any particular care in the operation.

Various attempts have been made to take air tight closing doors fromother arts and adapt them to boiler work but the conditions incidentalto their use in such high temperatured and dust accumulatingconstructions have not proven satisfactory. For instance, it has beenproposed to guide the clean out doors in their movements to and fromtheir open position by vertically inclined pin and groove guidewayconnections at opposite sides of the door openings. It has been found inpractice that this type of door guide, even when carefully machined andpositioned in place at great expense does not work smoothly after thegrooves have been in use for awhile, for they become distorted by theheat conditions present and by warping of the masonry setting. Further,the guide-ways quickly become clogged with the furnace dust and evenwhen care is taken to keep them free of dirt and dust, the frictionalresistance to the door movement in dropping into place is almost sure tobecome greater on one side than on the other thus causing the door tocant to one side in falling and jam against the side cheeks of the doorframe or against the groove in either case holding the door partiallyopen thus giving rise to objectionable air leakage.

In order to close the door when so jammed the operator hammers the doorinto closed position and frequently breaks off one or both of the guidepins and otherwise damages the guiding means.

Even if this guiding groove and pin construction were entirelysatisfactory in its operation the cost not only of the initialconstruction but also of the necessary repairs required due to thecareless handling to which such devices are subjected, would make theuse of such a refined construction almost prohibitive in boiler work.

Not only is it desired to secure thesealing of the door when droppedinto closed position but it is also desired that the door, when movedinto open position, shall remain in its fully opened position and shallbe secured in this position against any accidental closing down on thecleaning apparatus.

Accordingly, the primary object of the invention is to provide a simple,inexpensive form of door closure for clean out furnace openings, whichclosure can be quickly and positively moved to a secured open positionclear of any possible engagement with the cleaning apparatus and whichwill move automatically into an air tight closed position' simply bypulling the closure away from its open position and allowing it to fallgravitationally.

The object is attained in general by utilizing the advantages of thevertically inclined guidew-ay for moving the door laterally into closingposition as it falls vertically but to eliminate the known groovedconstructions and providing an open incline thereby avoiding thepossibility of dust accumulations. Further the invention con-' templatesan engagement with this open incline which will provide a looseconnection between the door and frame opening such as will permit thepositioning of the door on top of the frame and which will be free ofthe incline until the door is approximately but capable of withstandingthe strains in cidental to the careless use to which such doors aresubjected. j j

A still further object of the invention is to provide a constructionwhich may be adapted readily to installation in conventional forms ofclean out door openings and which can-be readily replaced when damagedwithout materially reorganizing the door frames now in general use andwhich at thesame time will reinforce the door'frame and door withoutadding material intentionally for this purpose.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in partobvious from an inspection of the accompanying drawings and in part willbe more fully set forth in the following particular description of oneform of mechanism embodying my invention, and the invention alsoconsists in cerwin new and novel features of construction constructionslightly modified from the showing of Fig. 1; v V

Flg. 3 1s a view in rear elevation and which'may be considered as a rearview of the device shown either in Figs. 1 or 2.

In the accompanying drawmg, there 1s shown a conventional form of boilerfront 10, provided with one of the clean-out openings 11 usually foundin tubular boiler constructions. The opening is outlined by a forwardlyprojecting frame 12, which frame includes oppositely disposed sidecheeks 18 and 14:,a top plate 15 and a bottom plate 16 coacting to forma box-like construction, the forward edge 17 of which is verticallydisposed and constitutes a door abutting surface.

The opening is closed 'by meansof a door; 18 of any conventional formand provided on its rear side with a frame abutting surface 19. designedto fit flush against the abutting surface 17 to form an air-tightclosure for the opening.

The top plate projects forwardly fromjthe boiler front with its uppersurface flat and. designed to provide a seat for the door when in theopen position shown in Fig.2. A pro jection 20 is positioned on the backside of the door adjacent its forward orv lower edge and having adepth'transversely of the plane of the door at least equal to the thicknessof.

the top plate so that the projection can extend into the opening whenthe door is on its seat. The-projection is disposed below the center ofmass of the door so that the'center of mass will be over the seat whenthe door is in its open position, thus insuring the positive seating ofthe door on top of the frame and removed from any accidentaldisplacement by the cleaning tool.

The inner side of the projection is defined by a wedge member 21 ofrelative massive construction projecting laterally beyond opposite sidesof the portion of the projec tion adjacent the door and having arelatively close fit between the side cheeks Opposite ends of thewedging projection are reduced and formed into small cylinders 22 and 23constituting pivoting pins adapted when the door. falls to engagerearwardly facing guiding surfaces 24 on guide members 25 definingopposite sides ofthe open- When the device, disclosed constitutes anattachment for old clean out door construction these guide members maybe simply right triangular plates, as shown in Fig. 1, riveted to theinner sides of the cheeks with one edge-26 disposed flush with thesurface 17.

Where the entire construction is designed to include the illustratedform. of closure the plates are cast integrally with and form in effecta major portion of each of the cheeks. It may be considered that in theshowing of Fig. 2 theside plates are formed integrally with the sidecheeks. In either case these members may be utilized to reinforce theside cheeks and to present additional abutting surfaces for the door.The guiding surfaces 24 are downwardly and rearwardly inclined, faceinto the interior of the furnace andare free of any oppositely facingflange which might coact therewith to collect dust. As the pivoting pinsengage the incline over a relatively short length thereof during thefinal closing movement of the door, it is obvious that the guidingsurface of the guide plates need have a length merely sufficient toengage the pins in all possible closing positions of the same, but inthe device illustrated these plates are of full depth of the interior ofthe frame to provide a deep bracing tothe side cheeks.

Inorder to prevent the pins from moving forwardly out of the. frameduring the opening movement of. the door, the upper portion ofthe guidemembers'are utilized as stops and to insure an easy swinging of the doorI into its fully opened position, rearwardly facing sockets 27 areformed in the upper, portion of the guide surfaces. The front of thedoor is provided with a curved lifting I finger 28. a

When the separate plates are utilized,

the door can be disposed in the fully opened position shown in dottedlines in Fig. 2 and then the plates can be riveted in place. However,when the plates are cast integrally with the side cheeks it is necessaryto provide means for permitting the mounting of the door. In one form ofconstruction this is accompanied by recessing one of the cheeks toprovide a horizontally disposed groove 29 having a depth sufficient topermit the insertion therein of the pin 23 and arranged so that the pincould be moved rearwardly along the groove until the other pin 22 ispositioned back of its guiding surface 24.

In operation and assuming that the door is in the closed position shoWnin Fig. 1, the operator simply engages the door by the finger 28 andjerks the same upwardly. As the projection contacts with the undersideof the top 15 the lower portion of the door is held thereby and'the topportion falls back on the seat provided by the top 15. Atthe same timethe pins on the projection move forwardly and engage in the sockets thusinsuring a square turning of the door about the axis of the pivot pins.When set the lower portion of the door projects forwardly of the frontedge of the top 15 which constitute-s a turning edge for the door in itsclosing movement.

While in this open position even if the cleaning tool should scrapeagainst the downwardly extending projection the door will not be closedfor it is held by the socket against forward movement and is held bv theengagement of the projection against the forward edge of the top 15 fromany rearward movement. As this projection provides a long bearingagainst the top 15 the door is held approximately in position to insurea square turning of the door about the forward edge of the top.

When it is desired to close the door the operator can pull the sameforwardly by means of the cleaning tool until the door begins to drop.This will happen as soon as the center of mass of the door is movedforwardly of the supporting seat. The operator need not give the doorany further attention for it will drop automatically into closingposition. During the first part of the falling movement of the door thepins will be free of the inclined guiding surfaces so that the door canacquire considerable momentum to overcome any caked dust which may haveaccumulated in the path of its final closing movement. Perhaps infalling one pin will be in advance of the other but this will in no wayinterfere with the actuation of the device for the forward pin willmerely engage its surface permitting the other pin to swing freely aboutthe advance pin as a pivot and into engagement with its coactingsurface. The momentum acquired by the falling door will cause the pinsto snugly wedge against the guiding surfaces thus forcing the door.laterally of its plane of falling movement and firmly against thebearing surface 17.

As the surfaces 2% are inclined almost perpendicularly the possibilityof dust accumulating on these exposed surfaces is reduced to a minimumand even if dust did cake on the surfaces the pins are free to ride overany such formation.

The projection is purposely formed ruggedly so that the possibility ofthe pins breaking off is practically eliminated. Further advantage istaken of this projection to brace the door across its rear face againstwarping. This projection tends to form a rigid door capable ofwithstanding the strains imposed thereon incidental to the forcing ofthe edges of the door against the bearing surfaces of the frame.

As the engaging surfaces of the pin and guiding surfaces wear away, thedoor does not lose its sealing efficiency for it merely drops down alittle farther than originally and in order to insure this function theinterengaging surfaces of the frame and door are initially constructedto give some material length of bearing surface vertica-lly.

Having thus described my invention. I claim 1. In a water tube boiler, aclean out door construction including a supporting member, a box-likestructure including side cheeks, and a top plate projecting forwardlyfrom said supporting member to form a clean out opening, said cheeks provided with rearwardly exposed inclined guiding surfaces facing away fromthe front of the box-like structure, a closure for said opening providedwith a projection on its inner side at least as deep as the thickness ofthe top plate and a wedge engaging member defining the inner side ofsaid projection and adapted to engage said guiding surfaces to move thedoor laterally as it falls by gravity.

2. In a water tube boiler, the combination of a door frame having avertically extendin front constituting a door abutting surface, guidingmembers at oppositesides of said frame and coacting to outline a part ofthe door opening, said members each having a bearing surface inclinedslightly from the vertical and facing rearwardly. away from said doorabutting surface. a door designed to contact with said abutting surfaceto close the door opening, a wedging member bridged across the dooropening, fixed to the rear side of the door and with opposite endsadapted to engage and slide down said bearing surfaces to draw the doorlaterally into firm closing contact with said abutting surface as thedoor falls gravitationally) cheeks, and a top plate, triangular shapedplates engaging said cheeks "to brace the same, said plates providedwith guiding surfaces 'on their inner sides and exposed rearwardly tothe interior of the boiler, a door for closing said opening and adaptedto be moved into open position resting on and supported by said topplate, a wedge member fixed to and extending across the rear side of thedoor and adapted to slide down said inclined surfaces to draw the doorlaterally into closing engagement with the too plate as the door fallsgravitationally.

i. In a device of the class described, the combination with a frameoutlining an opening and providing a'vertically disposed door abuttingsurface, the upper portion of said frame providing a door supportingseat, of a door having an open position supported on said seat and aclosing position abutting said surface, and means for guiding the doorin its final movement into its closing posi tion.

5. In a device of the class described, the combination-with a frameoutlining an openi119. and providing a vertically disposed door abuttingsurface, the upper portion of said frame providing a door supportingseat, of a door having an open position supported on said seat andclosing position abutting said surface, a member having a guidingsurface inclined downwardly away from said door abutting surface, saidmember having a socket at the upper end of said guiding surface, a pivotmember fixed to the door and slidable down said guiding surface therebyto draw the door laterally into bearing engagement against said abuttingsurface and movable into said socket as the door is raised thereby tohold the pivot member as the door is lifted and thus cause the door toswing into position resting on said seat.

6. A furnace construction provided with a door opening frame includingside cheeks and a top member constituting a door seat for the door whenin open position, a door adapted when in substantially vertical positionto close the opening, downwardly and rearwardly inclined guiding memberspositioned at opposite sides of the opening and exposed to the inside ofthe furnace, a wedge member spaced from said guiding members when thedoor is opened and adapted to fall into engagement with said members asthe door moves into its final closing position.

7. In a device of the class described, a door adapted to fall verticallyinto closed position, a seat for supporting the door in open positionand means operatively inde pendent of the door during the initial partof its closing movement andcoacting with the door in its final fallingmovement to move the same laterally into closed position.

8'. In a device of the class described, a door adapted to fallvertically into closed way and a projection from the door spaced fromthe guideway when the door moves off its seat and said guideway disposedin the path of movement of the projection as it falls with the door.

9. In a water tube boiler, the combination.

of a frame provided with a vertically disposed door abutting surface, adoor adapted to fit snugly against said surface, meansfproviding adownwardly and rearwardly inclined guiding surface positioned withinsaid frame and back of said abutting surface, a wedge member fixed tothe rear side of the door and adapted to engage said inclined guidingsurface to move the door laterally of its falling direction intoengagement with said abutting surface, said wedge. being free to movewith the door vertically away from said inclined surface thereby toclear the surface as the door is lifted into open position.

10. In a water tube boiler, the combination of a frame provided with avertically disposed door abutting surface, a door adapted to fit snuglyagainst said surface, means providing a downwardly and rearwardlyinclined guiding surface positioned within said frame and back of saidabutting surface, a

wedge member fixed tothe rear side of the door and adapted to engagesaid inclined guiding surface to move the door laterally of its fallingdirection into engagement with said abutting surface, said wedge beingfree to move with the door vertically away from said inclined surfacethereby to clear the surface as the door is lifted into open positionand means for intercepting the rising move ment of the wedge thereby toassist in a swinging of the door into open position.

11. In a water tube boiler, the combination of a frame provided with avertically disposed door abutting surface, a door adapted to fit snuglyagainst said surface, means providing a downwardly and rearwardlyinclined guiding surface positioned within said frame and back ofsaidabutting surface, a wedge member fixed to the rear side of the doorand adapted to engage said inclined guiding surface to move the doorlaterally of its falling direction into engagement with said abuttingsurface, said wedging member extending across the door to brace the sameagainst any'distortion incidental to the forcing of the door againstsaid abutting surface.

'12. In a device of the class described, the combination with a memberprovided with a clean out opening, means providing a'ver-' ticallydisposed door abutting surface about said opening, a door for closingsaid opening, a support for the door when in open position, means forholding the door When in open position loosely connected to said member,said last named means including mechanism for moving the door laterallyof its falling direction When moved off its sup port and into engagementwith said abutting surface.

13. In a device of the class described, the combination of a door frameincluding side cheeks, side plates formed integrally With said cheeks,and each provided With a down- Wardly and rearwardly extending guidingsurface, a door provided with a Wedging member fitted between saidcheeks and adapted to engage and slide down said guiding surfaces tomove the door laterally into closing position against said frame.

14. In a device of the class described, the combination of a door frameincluding side cheeks, side plates formed integrally with said cheeks,and each provided with a downwardly and rearwardly extending guidingsurface, one of said cheeks provided With a recess in rear of theguiding surface, a door provided With a Wedging member fitted betweensaid cheeks and adapted to engage and slide down said guiding surfacesto move the door laterally into closing position against said frame, oneend of said Wedging member designed to be inserted in said recess so asto permit the other end to be disposed back of its coacting guidingsurface when the door is mounted in place.

Signed at Williamsport, in the county of Lycoming and State ofPennsylvania, this 14th day of February, A. D. 1918.

CHARLES ELDON ROBINSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0.

